Information overload
I've spent the last 36 hours comfortably ensconced in the joy of my first big knitting event - the iKnit Weekender. I've taken my first knitting classes (!), and learned a number of new things. For example, I can now knit Fair Isle with two colors held in one hand. I've learned that all the math I ever needed for knitting I learned in grade school (yeah geometry!). And I've learned that Estonian lace knitters are supremely talented, supremely tenacious, or supremely nutty (or maybe all of the above). And that nupp rhymes with soup. It's been great fun, but I'm going to need a bit of time to process it before I can be coherent about it.
So instead, I'll leave you with some of the fiber I've been playing with of late - I went to Spunky Eclectic while I was in Maine for a dyeing class, and I came away with a new spindle and some Corriepaca fiber to play with. I don't do a lot of spindling, but I've been thinking about doing a bit more of it, just to fill in the spare seconds in my day. I finished up the first half of the top last night:
It's an interesting spin - the staple seems to be quite long, but I'm having a bit of trouble getting the single to stay together. Not enough twist seems the obvious answer, but I can't quite figure it out. Time to sit down with Abby Franquemont's DVD I think. I'm going to spin the other half on the spindle and ply them together in the same direction, so hopefully the colors will line up well. Then I'll have to go trawling the 4 Oz Challenge patterns to find something to make with it!